Page 28 of Beta and the Beast (Beastverse #2)

"I thought Sam told you," she says, her eyes transfixed on our lips, and it has Romulus purring louder.

She lifts her pretty brown eyes to mine, where my glasses are a little skewed.

She's sweet when she lifts her fingertips to the edge of the frames and readjusts them. "I thought you were okay with it."

" With my mate being in the same building as me? With getting to work near my beautiful beta every single day? " Romulus grabs one of her thighs, hiking it high up on our hips as he settles more between her legs. " I'm fucking ecstatic. "

"It's just that once this is all over, I don't want you to feel like I'm trying to force you into–"

Romulus kisses her, the only thing that's going to keep him from growling at how unhappy he is with her words.

How unhappy both of us are with her words.

He kisses her hard, biting at her lip and suckling on it when he's been too rough.

Not until we're both panting does he pull back, words seeming to evade Sarah now that she's lazily humping, trying to grind herself against us.

"Do you want children?" I ask when I realize Romulus has given me control of our body to ask the question we need to ask before he loses control and bites her.

The question seems to sober Sarah from her lust, and as her brows tug together, she shakes her head a little bit. "What? No, I mean, I never had the desire to get pregnant or raise a kid. No, why?"

"We needed to make sure we weren't taking that away from you," I tell her, grinding into her when she opens her mouth to argue or question. Romulus takes back over, his purr rumbling low around us. " You think too much, beta. Think too much about me leaving, too much about you not being enough. "

"Romulus," Sarah starts to argue, and he growls at her, loud, angry, and utterly ineffective against our beta, which is why he's being so aggressive with it. If he's not careful, he's going to growl loud enough that the others outside will hear and wonder what's going on.

Sarah swallows hard, something in her mind finally clicking, softening the corners of her eyes as a small smile tugs on her lips. "You really like me?"

" Oh, little beta, I more than like you, " Romulus purrs just as loudly as he was just growling.

His hips move against where we have Sarah pinned to the couch.

She arches her back, giving us as much of her as she can, even though we're both clothed and on her brother's couch.

She tilts her head to the side, a flash of insecurity in her eyes as she reaches up to pull her hair away from her neck.

Romulus is full predator when her neck is bared for him. Her breathing is erratic, her heartbeat thrumming loudly. This is what we want, what we've wanted for so long.

" What a pretty girl you are, offering yourself up to me, " Romulus says as he lowers his mouth to the juncture of her neck and shoulder. He kisses it once before asking, " You know what'll make you even prettier? "

Sarah whimpers, the sound having a direct line to our cock as it presses harder against my khakis in an attempt to rub against her. Romulus licks her neck, teasing the delicate skin, making this moment last.

I wish we were at home, in the nest. Need her bare and writhing in pleasure when I mark her as mine.

Then let's do that. We can say–

No, I'm marking her now. I've waited long enough.

" You're going to be so pretty when you look like mine. " Romulus's words end on a growl before he holds Sarah tight to him, his hips pinning her to the couch as he bites down hard into her. It's pure euphoria for us for all of a second before Sarah cries out in pain.

"Ow! Oh my god!" She pushes at our chest, and Romulus rears back immediately, his purr rumbling louder as though it has any chance of calming Sarah down. "Ow! Fuck!"

This isn't supposed to hurt. It isn't supposed to be painful for her.

She's supposed to enjoy this as much as we do, but she's not.

She's really, really not. Tears well up in her eyes as she tries to fight back a choked sob.

We're off her body, tugging her into our lap so we can hold her tight.

Romulus's tongue lashes against the wound to try to soothe some of the sting like he would for an omega, but just like our purr, it isn't doing anything for Sarah.

"Romulus," she says with a shaky sob, her shoulders trembling as she tries not to wail and make us feel even worse.

" I'm sorry, " he murmurs against her skin, holding her tighter to us as he tries to ease any of her pain, trying to make her feel better at all.

"It's okay, but can you go get Lilah or Scott? It hurts really bad, and I want to make sure it's okay."

Her words make sense, and thankfully, Romulus realizes that we're in way over our head. As far as we knew, we'd bite into our mate, she'd have the best orgasm of her life, and we'd be happy. We're just now realizing that might only be true for omegas.

" I'll get Lilah, " Romulus says, standing from the couch before settling Sarah back down. He tugs a blanket around her and then places a kiss on the wound, even though Sarah winces, which makes him upset with himself. " I'll be right back. "

Sarah smiles up at us with red-rimmed eyes and tear-stained cheeks. "I'm happy. I'm just also in a lot of pain." Her attempts to reassure us don't quite hit the mark because our mate is in pain because of us.

But she is our mate.

If you ever try to bite her, I will kill you.

Romulus means it, too. It's normal for beasts and their alphas to both claim their mates, but with Sarah, everything will be fine if she only has one bite.

Hearing her cry out, seeing the pain on her face that she tried to hide, it's going to haunt Romulus and me for a while.

No, I don't need to see that ever again.

I don't know if it's just evident on our face that something's wrong or if maybe our scent is acrid since Sarah's in pain, but as soon as the glass door slides open and the rest of the family looks over at me, they can tell something is wrong.

" We need Lilah, " Romulus says, his purr still involuntarily rumbling through us because even the thought of Sarah in pain has us needing to make it better.

Lilah rushes over and is inside the house as everyone else starts moving.

Scott is the first up and wants to follow his mate, but Sam puts a hand on his shoulder to hold him back.

A burst of laughter from inside the house, Lilah's laughter, has some of my tension easing, especially when Sarah's laugh follows it.

"So…" Jace looks up at me and then back at the rest of the group. "You guys mated then?"

" What? " Romulus asks, confused as to how they could think that's what happened when we came out here, losing our mind.

"You have blood just like all over your chin," Lucas says, his lips twitching as he tries his hardest to keep from smiling. He motions to his face, "All over."

"I'm going to check on the girls. You all help Romulus clean up," Janie says, sneaking past me into the house, leaving me to the torture of being away from my mate and being poked fun at by males I can at least now call my family.